Intriguing premise and spooky setting don’t make up for lackluster storytelling.
A young doctor’s surgical residency at New York’s iconic Bellevue Hospital mires him in murder, mystery, and mayhem.
Cook, the acclaimed founder of the medical-thriller genre, begins this standalone novel with a horrifying scene, set in 1949, in which a Bellevue doctor performs a lobotomy on an 8-year-old girl who is being treated for behavioral issues. The scene and the setting should be the perfect start to what could be a cringe-inducing horror story, but a weak, cliche-riddled narrative drags the novel down. Michael “Mitt” Fuller, a descendant of the doctor who performed the girl’s lobotomy, is excited to follow in the professional footsteps of four generations of Fullers who practiced medicine at Bellevue, but on day one of his residency, strange things begin to happen. Lights flicker, horrible odors come and go, surgical tools seem to have a mind of their own, patients die. Soon, he also learns that his ancestors were on the wrong side of evolving medical standards, including the now rejected lobotomy procedure, the use of anesthesia, and surgical theater antiseptics. He also sees dead people. This should be a page turner, but stilted dialogue and one-dimensional characters who can’t stop using worn out expressions such as “Good Grief,” “My Gosh,” and “Whoa!” are way too distracting, as are the descriptions of medical equipment, procedures, and illnesses that require a textbook to understand. What is interesting is the history of the centuries-old Bellevue, its architecture, and its famous patients, including Sylvia Plath and Norman Mailer. The ending, which rolls out in another perfect setting—the basement of an abandoned building—is spot on, but getting to it means slogging through page after page of dull writing.
Intriguing premise and spooky setting don’t make up for lackluster storytelling.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593718834
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.
Two killers are on the loose. Can they be stopped?
In this ambitious mystery, the prolific and popular King tells the story of a serial murderer who pledges, in a note to Buckeye City police, to kill “13 innocents and 1 guilty,” in order, we eventually learn, to avenge the death of a man who was framed and convicted for possession of child pornography and then killed in prison. At the same time, the author weaves in the efforts of another would-be murderer, a member of a violently abortion-opposing church who has been stalking a popular feminist author and women’s rights activist on a publicity tour. To tell these twin tales of murders done and intended, King summons some familiar characters, including private investigator Holly Gibney, whom readers may recall from previous novels. Gibney is enlisted to help Buckeye City police detective Izzy Jaynes try to identify and stop the serial killer, who has been murdering random unlucky citizens with chilling efficiency. She’s also been hired as a bodyguard for author and activist Kate McKay and her young assistant. The author succeeds in grabbing the reader’s interest and holding it throughout this page-turning tale of terror, which reads like a big-screen thriller. The action is well paced, the settings are vividly drawn, and King’s choice to focus on the real and deadly dangers of extremist thought is admirable. But the book is hamstrung by cliched characters, hackneyed dialogue (both spoken and internal), and motives that feel both convoluted and overly simplistic. King shines brightest when he gets to the heart of our darkest fears and desires, but here the dangers seem a bit cerebral. In his warning letter to the police, the serial killer wonders if his cryptic rationale to murder will make sense to others, concluding, “It does to me, and that is enough.” Is it enough? In another writer’s work, it might not be, but in King’s skilled hands, it probably is.
Even when King is not at his best, he’s still good.Pub Date: May 27, 2025
ISBN: 9781668089330
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Soapy, suspenseful fun.
A remembered horror plunges a pregnant woman into a waking nightmare.
Tegan Werner, 23, barely recalls her one-night stand with married real estate developer Simon Lamar; she only learns Simon’s name after seeing him on the local news five months later. Simon wants nothing to do with the resulting child Tegan now carries and tells his lawyer to negotiate a nondisclosure agreement. A destitute Tegan is all too happy to trade her silence for cash—until a whiff of Simon’s cologne triggers a memory of him drugging and raping her. Distraught and eight months pregnant, Tegan flees her Lewiston, Maine, apartment and drives north in a blizzard, intending to seek comfort and counsel from her older brother, Dennis; instead, she gets lost and crashes, badly injuring her ankle. Tegan is terrified when hulking stranger Hank Thompson stops and extricates her from the wreck, and becomes even more so when he takes her to his cabin rather than the hospital, citing hazardous road conditions. Her anxiety eases somewhat upon meeting Hank’s wife, Polly—a former nurse who settles Tegan in a basement hospital room originally built for Polly’s now-deceased mother. Polly vows to call 911 as soon as the phones and power return, but when that doesn’t happen, Tegan becomes convinced that Hank is forcing Polly to hold her prisoner. Tegan doesn’t know the half of it. McFadden unspools her twisty tale via a first-person-present narration that alternates between Tegan and Polly, grounding character while elevating tension. Coincidence and frustratingly foolish assumptions fuel the plot, but readers able to suspend disbelief are in for a wild ride. A purposefully ambiguous, forward-flashing prologue hints at future homicide, establishing stakes from the jump.
Soapy, suspenseful fun.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9781464227325
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
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